The Left’s War on Free Speech

Kimberley Strassel
Author,The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech

Kimberley Strassel writes the weekly “Potomac Watch” column for TheWall Street Journal, where she is also a member of the editorial board. A graduate of Princeton University, her previous positions at theJournalinclude news assistant in Brussels, internet reporter in London, commercial real estate reporter in New York, assistant editorial features editor, columnist for OpinionJournal.com, and senior editorial page writer. In 2013 she served as a Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Hillsdale College, and in 2014 she was a recipient of the Bradley Prize. She is the author ofThe Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech.

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 26, 2017, at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C., as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.

EXCERPT FROM THIS SPEECH: We need to think hard about ways to limit the powers of the administrative state, tostop rogue agents at the IRS and other agencies from trampling on free speech rights. We can make great progress simply by cutting the size of federal and state bureaucracies. But beyond that, we need to conduct systematic reviews of agency powers and strip from unaccountable bureaucracies any discretion over the political activities of Americans. The IRS should be doing what it was created to do—making sure taxpayers fill out their forms correctly. Period.

Thanks to John Pizzo for sharing the brilliance of Andrew Breitbart. Since Andrew Breitbart was once a liberal in college, he understood their ideology and was able to expose exactly what they where trying to accomplish and to warn against it. Nancy

Harry Reid is under a lot of job-retention stress these days, so Americans might forgive him the occasional word fumble. When he recently took to the Senate floor to berate the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch for spending “unlimited money” to “rig the system” and “buy elections,” the majority leader clearly meant to be condemning unions.

It’s an extraordinary thing, in a political age obsessed with campaign money, that nobody scrutinizes the biggest, baddest, “darkest” spenders of all: organized labor. The IRS is muzzling nonprofits; Democrats are “outing” corporate donors; Jane Mayer is probably working on part 89 of her New Yorker series on the “covert” Kochs. Yet the unions glide blissfully, unmolestedly along. This lack of oversight has led to a union world that today acts with a level of campaign-finance impunity that no other political giver—conservative outfits, corporate donors, individuals, trade groups—could even fathom.

Mr. Reid was quite agitated on the Senate floor about “unlimited money,” by which he must have been referring to the $4.4 billion that unions had spent on politics from 2005 to 2011 alone, according to this newspaper. The Center for Responsive Politics’ list of top all-time donors from 1989 to 2014 ranks Koch Industries No. 59. Above Koch were 18 unions, which collectively spent $620,873,623 more than Koch Industries ($18 million). Even factoring in undisclosed personal donations by the Koch brothers, they are a rounding error in union spending. (more…)

Mr. Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, is chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics

Feb. 27, 2014

The mainstream press has justified its lack of coverage over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups because there’s been no “smoking gun” tying President Obama to the scandal. This betrays a remarkable, if not willful, failure to understand abuse of power. The political pressure on the IRS to delay or deny tax-exempt status for conservative groups has been obvious to anyone who cares to open his eyes. It did not come from a direct order from the White House, but it didn’t have to.

First, some background: On Jan. 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Citizens Unitedv. FEC upholding the right of corporations and unions to make independent expenditures in political races. Then, on March 26, relying on Citizens United, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the rights of persons (including corporations) to pool resources for political purposes. This allowed the creation of “super PACs” as well as corporate contributions to groups organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that spend in political races.

The reaction to Citizens United was no secret. Various news outlets such as CNN noted that “Democrats fear the decision has given the traditionally pro-business GOP a powerful new advantage.”

The 501(c)(4) groups in question are officially known as “social-welfare organizations.” They have for decades been permitted to engage in political activity under IRS rules, so long as their primary purpose (generally understood to be more than 50% of their activity) wasn’t political. They are permitted to lobby without limitation and are not required to disclose their donors. The groups span the political spectrum, from the National Rifle Association to Common Cause to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. If forced out of 501(c)(4) status, these nonprofit advocacy groups would have to reorganize as for-profit corporations and pay taxes on donations received, or reorganize as “political committees” under Section 527 of the IRS Code and be forced to disclose their donors. (more…)

By Robert KnightRobert Knight is senior fellow for the American Civil Rights Union and a columnist for The Washington Times.

Friday, January 24, 2014

On Thursday, the FBI announced an indictment of Dinesh D’Souza, maker of the hit documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” in what appears to be a Hugo Chavez-style payback.

Mr. D’Souza is accused of making illegal campaign contributions to a U.S. Senate candidate in New York. Also in New York, conservative activist James O’Keefe reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, of which he has been critical, is targeting his Veritas group with subpoenas.

In Hollywood, Fox News is reporting that the Internal Revenue Service has targeted a conservative group, Friends of Abe, whose members stay anonymous because of liberal blacklisting. Texas Tea Party leader Catherine Engelbrecht, her husband and their company have been subjected to 28 audits, investigations and inquiries from the IRS and other federal agencies since she founded True the Vote.

If these developments and the Obamacare train wreck are still not enough to convince you that elections have consequences, consider the commonwealth of Virginia.

Last November, thanks to a massive blitz of negative TV, radio and Internet ads, an underfunded and lukewarm GOP effort, plus an impressive ground game turning out their base, the Democratic Party took all three statewide offices — governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

It didn’t hurt that the federal partial shutdown heavily affected vote-rich Northern Virginia, or that then-Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican (who was indicted last week), was under a cloud for allegedly accepting illegal gifts. Or that a Texas billionaire Obama supporter helped secure ballot placement for Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis, who drew 7 percent of the vote. Republican Kenneth T. Cuccinelli still lost by only 2 percent, nearly closing a double-digit gap as he belatedly hammered Obamacare.

That’s water under the bridge. Within days of being sworn in, Gov. Terry McAuliffe threatened to ignore the GOP-dominated House of Delegates and expand Obamacare by offering Medicaid to 400,000 more recipients without required legislation. To Democrats, “reaching across the aisle” means getting close enough to slap their opponents silly. The recipients always manage to look surprised.

In a similar spirit, new state Attorney General Mark R. Herring, who the media widely described as a moderate, gave a middle-finger salute Thursday to the 57 percent of Virginia voters who approved a marriage constitutional amendment in 2006. Remember, people who believe that the law should reflect what marriage has been for thousands of years are viewed as “extremists.” (more…)